Presenting media guidance search results based on relevancy

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for presenting search results based on relevancy in an interactive media guidance application are disclosed. After performing a user-initiated or automatic search for media content, the interactive media guidance application determines which of the hits are most relevant to the user. The guidance application then displays, or visually identifies, the relevant items. Some embodiments employ using different display arrangements based on the number of relevant items. Some embodiments display the relevant items in recommendation lists or hot lists.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/591,972, filed Nov. 1, 2006 now abandoned. This prior application ishereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to search features in interactivemedia guidance application systems.

Modern content delivery systems provide media consumers with access tounprecedented amounts of media. For example, home media consumers canaccess video programming from cable and satellite systems havinghundreds of channels. Add to a media consumer's system a digitalrecorder and the possibilities for what the consumer may access at anygiven time become virtually endless.

The vast amount of available media content presents challenges forguiding consumers efficiently to the media they want. When a guidanceapplication user performs a search for media content, for example, thenumber of search results (“hits”) can often be overwhelming. This isespecially true when the guidance application searches multiple sourcesof content. The problem is further compounded by the fact that many hitstechnically meet the user's search criteria but are not really what theuser is looking for. Thus, what is needed is an intelligent techniquethat ensures relevant search results are provided.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the principles of the present invention, systems andmethods for presenting search results based on relevancy in aninteractive media guidance application are provided. After performing auser-initiated or automatic search for media content, the interactivemedia guidance application determines which of the hits are mostrelevant to the user. This relevancy determination may be based onpersonalization data derived by monitoring user interactions with theinteractive media guidance application, or from express user mediapreference designations. In still other embodiments, the relevancydetermination may be made based on what other users selected from theresults of a similar search.

After determining which results are relevant to the user, the guidanceapplication then displays, or visually identifies, the relevant items.This may be accomplished by, for example, displaying only the relevantresults, changing the color of the relevant results, highlighting ormarking the relevant results, using a recommendations area or “hot list”area (hot lists are a type of recommendation based on the behavior ofother users) for the relevant results, or using any other suitableapproach.

In some embodiments, the guidance application determines relevancy basedon a relevancy threshold. The relevancy threshold may be defined usingany suitable approach. For example, the threshold may be a definedpercentage of the number of words associated with the content (e.g.,program listings, program titles, program descriptions, scene metadata,etc.) that meet the user-supplied criteria. Or, in some embodiments, therelevancy threshold may be defined using a distance algorithm. Therelevancy threshold may be hard-programmed into the application (i.e.,into the programming logic), or it may be defined in data received bythe application.

Some embodiments may employ a varying relevancy threshold. The thresholdmay vary, for example, based on the number of hits meeting thethreshold. When the number of hits meeting the relevancy threshold isbelow a minimum number, the guidance application incrementally lowersthe relevancy threshold until the minimum number of relevant hits ismet. In other approaches, the threshold may be varied by day part. Inyet other approaches, the interactive media guidance application mayreceive user inputs adjusting the relevancy threshold.

The search criteria may be derived using any suitable approach. In someembodiments, for example, the interactive media guidance applicationreceives the criteria from user input. In other embodiments, theinteractive media guidance application generates the criteria from userpersonalization data.

The interactive media guidance application may display the matching,relevant results using any suitable approach. For example, the resultsmay be represented as text, graphics, or video, and may be displayed ina list or a mosaic. The guide may sort results by relevance.

The guide may change the display characteristics of the relevant resultsdepending on the number of relevant results, the relevancy thresholditself, or other suitable factors. For example, the guide may vary thedisplay area size of a guidance display module used for the relevantresults, the colors of the relevant results, the positional arrangementof the results (or modules containing the results), or the applicationmodules included in a display. The display characteristics may also bevaried by day part.

Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantageswill be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the followingdetailed description of the preferred embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative interactive media guidance applicationdisplay screen in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative interactive media guidance applicationdisplay screen in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIGS. 3 a and 3 b are illustrative search result displays;

FIGS. 4 a-4 d are illustrative search result displays in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 5 a and 5 b are illustrative modular quickview displays inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is an illustrative modular quickview display having a searchcriteria entry popup in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention

FIG. 7 is an illustrative modular quickview; display with search resultsresulting from the search criteria entered into the popup of FIG. 6 inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a diagram of an illustrative user equipment in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a diagram of an illustrative media system in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 10-12 are flowcharts of illustrative steps involved in performingthe processes of various embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is an illustrative data structure for a personalization datatable in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in providingrelevant recommendations in one embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 15 is an illustrative data structure for a display definition inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The amount of media available to users in any given media deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate media selections and easily identify media that they maydesire. An application which provides such guidance is referred toherein as an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, amedia guidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the media for which they provide guidance. One typical type of mediaguidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof media content including conventional television programming (providedvia traditional broadcast, cable, satellite, Internet, or other means),as well as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as invideo-on-demand (VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming media,downloadable media, Webcasts, etc.), and other types of media or videocontent. Guidance applications also allow users to navigate among andlocate content related to the video content including, for example,video clips, articles, advertisements, chat sessions, games, etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on personal computers (PCs)and other devices on which they traditionally did not, such as hand-heldcomputers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile telephones, orother mobile devices. On these devices users are able to navigate amongand locate the same media available through a television. Consequently,media guidance is necessary on these devices, as well. The guidanceprovided may be for media content available only through a television,for media content available only through one or more of these devices,or for media content available both through a television and one or moreof these devices. The media guidance applications may be provided ason-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or as stand-aloneapplications or clients on hand-held computers, PDAs, mobile telephones,or other mobile devices. The various devices and platforms that mayimplement media guidance applications are described in more detailbelow.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia listings and media information to users. FIGS. 1-2 showillustrative display screens that may be used to provide media guidance,and in particular media listings. The display screens shown in FIGS. 1-2may be implemented on any suitable device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 1-2 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over media content being displayed.A user may indicate a desire to access media information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media informationorganized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in a grid,by time, by channel, by media type, by category (e.g., movies, sports,news, children, or other categories of programming), or otherpredefined, user-defined, or other organization criteria.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid program listings display 100 arranged bytime and channel that also enables access to different types of mediacontent in a single display. Display 100 may include grid 102 with: (1)a column of channel/media type identifiers 104, where each channel/mediatype identifier (which is a cell in the column) identifies a differentchannel or media type available; and (2) a row of time identifiers 106,where each time identifier (which is a cell in the row) identifies atime block of programming. Grid 102 also includes cells of programlistings, such as program listing 108, where each listing provides thetitle of the program provided on the listing's associated channel andtime. With a user input device, a user can select program listings bymoving highlight region 110. Information relating to the program listingselected by highlight region 110 may be provided in program informationregion 112. Region 112 may include, for example, the program title, theprogram description, the time the program is provided (if applicable),the channel the program is on (if applicable), the program's rating, andother desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming provided accordingto a schedule, the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming which is not provided according to a schedule.Non-linear programming may include content from different media sourcesincluding on-demand media content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored media content(e.g., video content stored on a digital video recorder (DVR), digitalvideo disc (DVD), video cassette, compact disc (CD), etc.), or othertime-insensitive media content. On-demand content may include bothmovies and original media content provided by a particular mediaprovider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “Curb YourEnthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND, THE SOPRANOS, and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming media or downloadable media through anInternet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 102 may provide listings for non-linear programming includingon-demand listing 114, recorded media listing 116, and Internet contentlisting 118. A display combining listings for content from differenttypes of media sources is sometimes referred to as a “mixed-media”display. The various permutations of the types of listings that may bedisplayed that are different than display 100 may be based on userselection or guidance application definition (e.g., a display of onlyrecorded and broadcast listings, only on-demand and broadcast listings,etc.). As illustrated, listings 114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanningthe entire time block displayed in grid 102 to indicate that selectionof these listings may provide access to a display dedicated to on-demandlistings, recorded listings, or Internet listings, respectively. Inother embodiments, listings for these media types may be includeddirectly in grid 102. Additional listings may be displayed in responseto the user selecting one of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing anarrow key on a user input device may affect the display in a similarmanner as selecting navigational icons 120.)

Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement 124, andoptions region 126. Video region 122 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 122 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 102. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the presentinvention.

Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for media content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the media listingsin grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the media content displayed in grid 102.Advertisement 124 may be selectable and provide further informationabout media content, provide information about a product or a service,enable purchasing of media content, a product, or a service, providemedia content relating to the advertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 maybe targeted based on a user's profile/preferences, monitored useractivity, the type of display provided, or on other suitable targetedadvertisement bases.

While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 124 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over media content or aguidance application display or embedded within a display.Advertisements may also include text, images, rotating images, videoclips, or other types of media content. Advertisements may be stored inthe user equipment with the guidance application, in a databaseconnected to the user equipment, in a remote location (includingstreaming media servers), or on other storage means or a combination ofthese locations. Providing advertisements in a media guidanceapplication is discussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson etal., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/347,673, filed Jan. 17, 2003,Ward, III et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004, andSchein et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the present invention.

Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types of mediacontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (andother display screens of the present invention), or may be invoked by auser by selecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated orassignable button on a user input device. The selectable options withinoptions region 126 may concern features related to program listings ingrid 102 or may include options available from a main menu display.Features related to program listings may include searching for other airtimes or ways of receiving a program, recording a program, enablingseries recording of a program, setting program and/or channel as afavorite, purchasing a program, or other features. Options availablefrom a main menu display may include search options, VOD options,parental control options, access to various types of listing displays,subscribe to a premium service, edit a user's profile, access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of media content listings displayed(e.g., only HDTV programming, user-specified broadcast channels based onfavorite channel selections, re-ordering the display of channels,recommended media content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, and other desired customizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the media the useraccesses and/or other interactions the user may have with the guidanceapplication. Additionally, the media guidance application may obtain allor part of other user profiles that are related to a particular user(e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the user accesses, such aswww.tvguide.com, from other media guidance applications the useraccesses, from other interactive applications the user accesses, from ahandheld device of the user, etc.), and/or obtain information about theuser from other sources that the media guidance application may access.As a result, a user can be provided with a unified guidance applicationexperience across the user's different devices. This type of userexperience is described in greater detail below in connection with FIG.9. Additional personalized media guidance application features aredescribed in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/179,710, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/437,604, filed Nov. 9, 1999, and Ellis et al.,U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/105,128, filed Feb. 21, 2002, whichare hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 formedia content information organized based on media type, genre, and/orother organization criteria. In display 200, television listings option204 is selected, thus providing listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 asbroadcast program listings. Unlike the listings from FIG. 1, thelistings in display 200 are not limited to simple text (e.g., theprogram title) and icons to describe media. Rather, in display 200 thelistings may provide graphical images including cover art, still imagesfrom the media content, video clip previews, live video from the mediacontent, or other types of media that indicate to a user the mediacontent being described by the listing. Each of the graphical listingsmay also be accompanied by text to provide further information about themedia content associated with the listing. For example, listing 208 mayinclude more than one portion, including media portion 214 and textportion 216. Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectableto view video in full-screen or to view program listings related to thevideo displayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for thechannel that the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 islarger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the media provider or basedon user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating media listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/324,202, filed Dec. 29, 2005, which ishereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

The interactive media guidance application may provide other features,including media search features that employ the intelligent resultsdisplays of the present invention. FIGS. 3 a and 3 b show twoillustrative types of search results displays. In the search display ofFIG. 3 a, the interactive media guidance application receives from theuser keywords as search criteria. In FIG. 3 b, the interactive mediaguidance application receives from the user category and subcategoryidentifiers as search criteria. In these examples, television programsand on-demand videos are the subject of the search, but in otherembodiments the media guidance application may search for any one ormore types of other media content.

Each of the search displays of FIGS. 3 a and 3 b demonstrate thedeficiency with prior art searches; they provide more results than auser can practically review (in FIG. 3 a there are 1328 matches and in 3b there are 6023). FIGS. 4 a and 4 b show the effect of determiningwhich results are most relevant and only displaying those results inaccordance with some embodiments of the present invention. In both casesthe number of displayed matches were drastically reduced.

FIG. 4C shows another display arrangement for providing relevantresults. In this example, all of the matching results are displayed inarea 410. The relevant results are provided in recommendations area 420.In this example, the interactive media guidance application determinedthe relevancy of the results using personalization data for the user.FIG. 4 d illustrates another example where a “hot list” area 430 is usedto identify results that are relevant to popular picks based on whatother users have liked.

In FIGS. 4 a-4 d are only illustrative. In other approaches (not shown),the entire result set may be displayed and the most relevant results maybe presented or visually distinguished in other ways. For example,relevant results may be highlighted, marked, or colored differently thannon-relevant hits. In some approaches, a range of colors or a set ofmarks or icons (e.g., one star, two stars, etc.), may be used todifferentiate the relevant results.

Another illustrative interactive media guidance application display isshown in FIG. 5 a. Display 500 is a modular quickview dashboard displaythat may be personalized by the user as described, for example, inShannon et al. U.S. application Ser. No. , filed Sep. 29, 2006, which ishereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Each module ofdisplay 500 may provide access to different types of media content indifferent arrangements. However, the multiple modules of display 500provide the user with ready access to these different types of media ina single unified display screen. Module display types include, forexample, Grid Guide, Program Information, Suggested Programming, WatchList, Purchased VOD, Recorded Programs, Programs Scheduled to Record,Most Popular/Highest Rated lists, Search, Program/Movie Browser,Editorial Review, Video Previews, TV Planner, or any other suitableguidance application features. In certain implementations, only alimited number of modules are simultaneously provided within a displayscreen due to space constraints. For example, on display 500 of FIG. 5a, only “Suggested Programming” module 502, “Top On Demand” module 504,“Grid guide” module 550, and “My Video Vault” module 524 are presentedto the users.

“Top On Demand” module 504 includes graphical listings for non-linear,on-demand programming. Similarly, “Suggested Programming” module 502,which suggests current and future programming options that may be ofinterest to a user, also includes listings for linear programming. “Gridguide” module 550, on the other hand, is capable of providing listingsfor linear programming, non-linear programming, and any combinationthereof. Thus, it can be seen that through the use of multiple guidancemodules, listings for multiple media types may be provided in aconvenient format. More detailed descriptions of these particularmodules are provided in Shannon et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/541,299, filed Sep. 29, 2006, already incorporated by referenceherein in its entirety.

In addition to providing personalized guidance for media content from amyriad of media sources and in a myriad of combinations, display 500 isalso able to present media listings in a variety of displayarrangements. Modules such as “Suggested Programming” module 502, “TopOn Demand” module 504 and “My Video Vault” module 524 present listingsfor media content in a video mosaic display. “Suggested Programming”module 502, on the other hand, is organized as a video mosaic display amulti-column fashion. “Top On Demand” module 504 is also provides avideo mosaic display, but in a single-column display fashion. Inaddition, modules such as “Grid Guide” 550 present listings for mediacontent in a grid display and uses only textual information regardingthe media content.

The quickview display of the embodiment of FIG. 5 a is presented by theguidance application in response to the user selecting Quickview tab514. The guidance application may provide other displays for other tabs,such as Guide 516, Recorded TV 518, On Demand 520, Search 522, etc.Guide tab 516 displays modules having grid guides for personalized mediacontent listings. Recorded TV tab 518 displays modules having listingsfor media content recorded by a user household. On-Demand tab 520displays modules having listings for most popular or highest ratedOn-Demand programs currently available through the media Guideapplication.

In quickview mode, the guidance application displays abridged versionsof the abovementioned modules whose complete listings are viewable fromone or more of the other tabs. For example, the quickview display ofFIG. 5 a (which is presented by the guide in response to the userselecting quickview tab 514) includes a portion of “SuggestedProgramming” module 502 that may normally appear in Guide tab 516.Quickview tab 514 further includes a portion of “Top On Demand” module504 and a portion of “My Video Vault” module 524, whose completelistings may be selectable from On Demand tab 520 and Recorded TV tab518, respectively. The media guidance application selects media for thequickview modules by searching for matching content based on searchcriteria, and determining the media content that are most relevant tothe user.

Comparing FIGS. 5 a and 5 b will illustrate how the interactive mediaguidance application may intelligently select relevant search results,change display arrangements, and change which modules are included in aguidance display based on the relevant results. The media guidanceapplication generated Suggested Programming module 502 by searching theguidance database for content on now, on next, and on later. Afterfinding all matching hits (the search criteria being the relevant timeslots), the application filters the hits to display only those meetingthe relevancy threshold. In this example, Suggested Programming module502 has room for only the most relevant two hits for each time slot.Accordingly only these hits are selected for display. Program gridmodule 550, however, can fit more hits in the space allotted, and itincludes the most relevant four hits for the current time slot (in thisexample, the grid also shows past programs).

In the example of FIG. 5 b, the user and day part have changed and therelevancy determination yields a different set of relevant results. Inthis example, there are no more than three relevant results for the“Suggested Programming.” The guide has also changed which modules aredisplayed; the program grid has been omitted because, in this example,there are no relevant current programs to display. In addition the“Suggested Programming” module 502 has been resized to accommodate thefewer results. It could have been resized larger and grid 550 movedfurther down, if the number of relevant results required it (not shown).

Another example of the guidance application changing the displayedmodules is illustrated by comparing module 504 of FIGS. 5 a and 5 b. Inthis example, the relevancy threshold yields different result sets foran “on-demand” search because the user changes from an adult to a child(which may have been determined based on the change in day part asdescribed below). Thus instead of choosing the “Top On Demand” module,the guidance application chose the “Kids On Demand” module. In eachon-demand module, however, the guide selects only the most relevant sixresults because there is only room to display six results.

The guidance application may obtain search criteria for the quickviewmodules using any suitable approach. For example, the guidanceapplication may generate the search criteria based on userpersonalization data that was derived from user interactions or suppliedby the user. In other approaches, the guidance application may receivesearch criteria from the user. FIG. 6 shows an illustrative popup 600that the interactive media guidance application may display in responseto a user indicating a desire to supply search criteria for a module(such as by navigating “up” from the uppermost element in a module,highlighting the module, and pressing select). The example of FIG. 6 isa keyword entry, but any suitable search type may be used (e.g., bycategory, by source, etc). In response to the user entering the searchcriteria, the guidance application may populate the module with therelevant results. FIG. 7 is an example of the “Top on Demand” modulebeing populated with relevant on-demand results based on the userentering a keyword “Lord” (if the relevancy intelligence of the presentinvention were not used, the module would have had the results shown inFIG. 3 a). The example of FIG. 7 also shows how the “Top on Demand”module has been resized based on the number of relevant hits.

FIGS. 4 a-7 are provided to demonstrate how the guidance application maylimit (or visually identify) search results to those relevant to theuser and, in some embodiments, select modules and positionalarrangements for modules based on the number of relevant hits.Furthermore, results meeting the relevancy threshold may be sortedaccording to relevance (not shown). These examples are only illustrativeas, in other embodiments, other modules and relevancy thresholds,arrangements, sorting, and other variants may be used.

In some embodiments, the relevancy determination may also affectadvertisement selection for the guidance displays. For example, FIGS. 5a and 5 b include advertisement 532. The guidance application may selectadvertisement 532 because it is for relevant media that is not includedon the display due to, for example, space constraints.

Users may access media content and the media guidance application (andits display screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 8 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 800. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 9.User equipment device 800 may receive media content and data viainput/output (hereinafter “I/O”) path 802. I/O path 802 may providemedia content (e.g., broadcast programming, on-demand programming,Internet content, and other video or audio) and data to controlcircuitry 804, which includes processing circuitry 806 and storage 808.Control circuitry 804 may be used to send and receive commands,requests, and other suitable data using I/O path 802. I/O path 802 mayconnect control circuitry 804 (and specifically processing circuitry806) to one or more communications paths (described below). I/Ofunctions may be provided by one or more of these communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 8 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing.

Control circuitry 804 may be based on any suitable processing circuitry806 such as processing circuitry based on one or more microprocessors,microcontrollers, digital signal processors, programmable logic devices,etc. In some embodiments, control circuitry 804 executes instructionsfor a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e., storage 808).In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 804 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. Communicationscircuitry may include a cable modem, an integrated services digitalnetwork (ISDN) modem, a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephonemodem, or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment. Suchcommunications may involve the Internet or any other suitablecommunications networks or paths (which is described in more detail inconnection with FIG. 9). In addition, communications circuitry mayinclude circuitry that enables peer-to-peer communication of userequipment devices, or communication of user equipment devices inlocations remote from each other (described in more detail below).

Memory (e.g., random-access memory, read-only memory, or any othersuitable memory), hard drives, optical drives, or any other suitablefixed or removable storage devices (e.g., DVD recorder, CD recorder,video cassette recorder, or other suitable recording device) may beprovided as storage 808 that is part of control circuitry 804. Storage808 may include one or more of the above types of storage devices. Forexample, user equipment device 800 may include a hard drive for a DVR(sometimes called a personal video recorder, or PVR) and a DVD recorderas a secondary storage device. Storage 808 may be used to store varioustypes of media described herein and guidance application data, includingprogram information, guidance application settings, user preferences orprofile information, or other data used in operating the guidanceapplication. Nonvolatile memory may also be used (e.g., to launch aboot-up routine and other instructions).

Control circuitry 804 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 804 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting media into the preferred output format of the userequipment 800. Circuitry 804 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment to receive and to display,to play, or to record media content. The tuning and encoding circuitrymay also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitry describedherein, including for example, the tuning, video generating, encoding,decoding, scaler, and analog/digital circuitry, may be implemented usingsoftware running on one or more general purpose or specializedprocessors. Multiple tuners may be provided to handle simultaneoustuning functions (e.g., watch and record functions, picture-in-picture(PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording, etc.). If storage 808 isprovided as a separate device from user equipment 800, the tuning andencoding circuitry (including multiple tuners) may be associated withstorage 808.

A user may control the control circuitry 804 using user input interface810. User input interface 810 may be any suitable user interface, suchas a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard, touch screen,touch pad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognition interface, or otheruser input interfaces. Display 812 may be provided as a stand-alonedevice or integrated with other elements of user equipment device 800.Display 812 may be one or more of a monitor, a television, a liquidcrystal display (LCD) for a mobile device, or any other suitableequipment for displaying visual images. In some embodiments, display 812may be HDTV-capable. Speakers 814 may be provided as integrated withother elements of user equipment device 800 or may be stand-alone units.The audio component of videos and other media content displayed ondisplay 812 may be played through speakers 814. In some embodiments, theaudio may be distributed to a receiver (not shown), which processes andoutputs the audio via speakers 814.

User equipment device 800 of FIG. 8 can be implemented in system 900 ofFIG. 9 as user television equipment 902, user computer equipment 904,wireless user communications device 906, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing media, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices. User equipmentdevices, on which a media guidance application is implemented, mayfunction as a standalone device or may be part of a network of devices.Various network configurations of devices may be implemented and arediscussed in more detail below.

User television equipment 902 may include a set-top box, an integratedreceiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellite television, a televisionset, a digital storage device, a DVD recorder, a video-cassette recorder(VCR), a local media server, or other user television equipment. One ormore of these devices may be integrated to be a single device, ifdesired. User computer equipment 904 may include a PC, a laptop, atablet, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PC mediaserver, a PC media center, or other user computer equipment. WEBTV is atrademark owned by Microsoft Corp. Wireless user communications device906 may include PDAs, a mobile telephone, a portable video player, aportable music player, a portable gaming machine, or other wirelessdevices.

It should be noted that with the advent of television tuner cards forPC's, WebTV, and the integration of video into other user equipmentdevices, the lines have become blurred when trying to classify a deviceas one of the above devices. In fact, each of user television equipment902, user computer equipment 904, and wireless user communicationsdevice 906 may utilize at least some of the system features describedabove in connection with FIG. 8 and, as a result, include flexibilitywith respect to the type of media content available on the device. Forexample, user television equipment 902 may be Internet-enabled allowingfor access to Internet content, while user computer equipment 904 mayinclude a tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may also have the same layout on the variousdifferent types of user equipment or may be tailored to the displaycapabilities of the user equipment. For example, on user computerequipment, the guidance application may be provided as a web siteaccessed by a web browser. In another example, the guidance applicationmay be scaled down for wireless user communications devices.

In system 900, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 9 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device (e.g., a user may have atelevision set and a computer) and also more than one of each type ofuser equipment device (e.g., a user may have a PDA and a mobiletelephone and/or multiple television sets).

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.tvguide.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 914.Namely, user television equipment 902, user computer equipment 904, andwireless user communications device 906 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 914 via communications paths 908, 910, and 912, respectively.Communications network 914 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile device (e.g., Blackberry)network, cable network, public switched telephone network, or othertypes of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. BLACKBERRY is a trademark owned by Research In Motion LimitedCorp. Paths 908, 910, and 912 may separately or together include one ormore communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 912 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 9 it is awireless path and paths 908 and 910 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 9 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 908, 910, and 912, as well other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is atrademark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipment devices mayalso communicate with each other directly through an indirect path viacommunications network 914.

System 900 includes media content source 916 and media guidance datasource 918 coupled to communications network 914 via communication paths920 and 922, respectively. Paths 920 and 922 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 908, 910,and 912. Communications with the media content source 916 and mediaguidance data source 918 may be exchanged over one or morecommunications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 9 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, there may be more than one ofeach of media content source 916 and media guidance data source 918, butonly one of each is shown in FIG. 9 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. (The different types of each of these sources are discussedbelow.) If desired, media content source 916 and media guidance datasource 918 may be integrated as one source device. Althoughcommunications between sources 916 and 918 with user equipment devices902, 904, and 906 are shown as through communications network 914, insome embodiments, sources 916 and 918 may communicate directly with userequipment devices 902, 904, and 906 via communication paths (not shown)such as those described above in connection with paths 908, 910, and912.

Media content source 916 may include one or more types of mediadistribution equipment including a television distribution facility,cable system headend, satellite distribution facility, programmingsources (e.g., television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.),intermediate distribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers,on-demand media servers, and other media content providers. NBC is atrademark owned by the National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is atrademark owned by the ABC, INC., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Media content source 916 may be the originator ofmedia content (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.)or may not be the originator of media content (e.g., an on-demand mediacontent provider, an Internet provider of video content of broadcastprograms for downloading, etc.). Media content source 716 may includecable sources, satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internetproviders, or other providers of media content. Media content source 916may also include a remote media server used to store different types ofmedia content (including video content selected by a user), in alocation remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of media content, and providing remotelystored media content to user equipment are discussed in greater detailin connection with Ellis et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/332,244, filed Jun. 11, 1999, which is hereby incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 918 may provide media guidance data, such asmedia listings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times,broadcast channels, media titles, media descriptions, ratingsinformation (e.g., parental control ratings, critic's ratings, etc.),genre or category information, actor information, logo data forbroadcasters' or providers' logos, etc.), media format (e.g., standarddefinition, high definition, etc.), advertisement information (e.g.,text, images, media clips, etc.), on-demand information, displaydefinitions, any other type of guidance data that is helpful for a userto navigate among and locate desired media selections, and any otherdata used to otherwise generated interactive media guidance applicationdisplays.

In some embodiments, media guidance data source 918 provides hot-listinformation (i.e., data on what other users have watched as a result ofsearches) used by the media guidance application to provide hot listdisplays of relevant search results. In such embodiments, theinteractive media guidance application transmits search information tomedia guidance data source 918 via communications network 914 and path908, 910, or 912. The search information identifies the search criteriaof a search performed by the interactive media guidance application, andthe media selected for access by the user from the search resultsdisplay. This information is used by the source 918 to create a databaseof hot lists. When the interactive media guidance application performs asearch, it sends the search criteria to source 918. In response, source918 provides from the database identifiers of media that other usershave watched as a result of similar searches. The interactive mediaguidance application displays the identifiers in a hot list display,such as hot list display 430 of FIG. 4 d.

Media guidance application data may be provided to the user equipmentdevices using any suitable approach. In some embodiments, the guidanceapplication may be a stand-alone interactive television program guidethat receives program guide data via a data feed (e.g., a continuousfeed, trickle feed, or data in the vertical blanking interval of achannel). Program schedule data and other guidance data may be providedto the user equipment on a television channel sideband, in the verticalblanking interval of a television channel, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other guidancedata may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog or digitaltelevision channels. Program schedule data and other guidance data maybe provided to the user equipment with any suitable frequency (e.g.,continuously, daily, a user-specified period of time, a system-specifiedperiod of time, in response to a request from user equipment, etc.). Insome approaches, guidance data from media guidance data source 918 maybe provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a guidance application client residing on the user's equipmentmay initiate sessions with source 918 to obtain guidance data whenneeded. Media guidance data source 918 may provide user equipmentdevices 902, 904, and 906 the media guidance application itself orsoftware updates for the media guidance application.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. In otherembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only the client resides on the user equipment device.For example, media guidance applications may be implemented partially asa client application on processing circuitry 806 of user equipmentdevice 804 (FIG. 8) and partially on a remote server as a serverapplication (e.g., media guidance data source 918). The guidanceapplication displays may be generated by the media guidance data source918 and transmitted to the user equipment devices. The media guidancedata source 918 may also transmit data for storage on the userequipment, which then generates the guidance application displays basedon instructions processed by control circuitry.

Media guidance system 900 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of media content and guidance data may communicate with eachother for the purpose of accessing media and providing media guidance.The present invention may be applied in any one or a subset of theseapproaches, or in a system employing other approaches for deliveringmedia and providing media guidance. The following three approachesprovide specific illustrations of the generalized example of FIG. 9.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribe above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similar deviceprovided on a home network, or via communications network 914. Each ofthe multiple individuals in a single home may operate different userequipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may be desirablefor various media guidance information or settings to be communicatedbetween the different user equipment devices. For example, it may bedesirable for users to maintain consistent media guidance applicationsettings on different user equipment devices within a home network, asdescribed in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/179,710, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types of userequipment devices in a home network may also communicate with each otherto transmit media content. For example, a user may transmit mediacontent from user computer equipment to a portable video player orportable music player.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access media content and obtain media guidance. For example,some users may have home networks that are accessed by in-home andmobile devices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. patent application Ser.No. 10/927,814, filed Aug. 26, 2004, which is hereby incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith media content source 916 to access media content. Specifically,within a home, users of user television equipment 904 and user computerequipment 906 may access the media guidance application to navigateamong and locate desirable media content. Users may also access themedia guidance application outside of the home using wireless usercommunications devices 906 to navigate among and locate desirable mediacontent.

It will be appreciated that while the discussion of media content hasfocused on video content, the principles of media guidance can beapplied to other types of media content, such as music, images, etc.

FIGS. 10-12 are flowcharts of processes for various embodiments of thepresent invention. These flowcharts are only illustrative, as varioussteps may be omitted, other steps added, or the steps reordered,depending on the embodiment of the invention.

Process 1000 of FIG. 10 demonstrates illustrative steps involved in someembodiments for obtaining search criteria, searching for matching items,and identifying relevant matches. Steps 1010 though 1040 are directed toobtaining search criteria in various embodiments. At step 1010, theinteractive media guidance application receives search criteria from theuser. In some embodiments, for example, the interactive media guidanceapplication (which is implemented on processing circuitry 806 (FIG. 8))receives the search criteria from user input interface 810 (FIG. 8). Thesearch criteria may have been entered by the user in, for example, theby keyword or by category search displays of FIGS. 4 a-4 d, or thesearch entry keyboard of popup 600 of FIG. 6.

Steps 1020-1040 are employed by the interactive media guidanceapplication in embodiments where search criteria are generated by theapplication (which may be in addition to receiving search criteria fromthe user). At step 1020, the interactive media guidance applicationmonitors user behavior to generate personalization data (such techniquesare well known to those skilled in the art). At step 1030, the userenters express user preferences (such as by rating content, genres,categories, etc.). Both approaches may be implemented. At step 1040, theinteractive media guidance application generates search criteria fromthe personalization data/preferences (as used herein, “personalizationdata” may refer to both express user preferences and data generated viauser behavior monitoring).

The following examples will serve to illustrate the operation of step1040. Assume, for example, that user behavior monitoring or express userpreferences suggests the user likes action movies. The interactive mediaguidance application may generate, from internal data structuresdefining the categories, an “action” text string for use as searchcriteria to search for action movies or programs, or relatedadvertisements. As another example, assume that the guidance applicationdetermines that the user likes a particular actor such as “SylvesterStallone.” From this personalization information the interactive mediaguidance application may generate “Stallone” as search criteria to, forexample, search for suggested Stallone movies, search for relatedadvertisements, or any other suitable search.

Steps 1050 and 1060 are alternative steps one or both of which may beperformed in any given embodiment. At step 1050, the interactive mediaguidance application receives an express user indication to perform asearch. This express indication may be of any suitable type, such as byselecting a keyword (e.g., FIG. 3 a), selecting a sub-category (e.g.,FIG. 3 b), or the user selection of an option that initiates a searchwith search criteria generated by the interactive media guidanceapplication at step 1040. At step 1060, the interactive media guidanceapplication determines whether an automatic search should be performed,such as in response to a timer function, or in any other way that is nottied to a user action (e.g., such as when generating programmingsuggestions for subsequent use).

In response to the user indication or determination that a search shouldbe performed from steps 1050 and 1060, the interactive media guidanceapplication searches media information for matching items (step 1070).The media information may be stored, for example, in a database instorage 808 (FIG. 8) or media guidance data source 918 (FIG. 9) (such asin client-server-based architectures). The items that are searched formay be any suitable guidance application data associated with media thatis the subject of the search. Media may be searched for based onassociated program listings, titles, information in media descriptions,metadata describing scenes in video media, or any other suitable items.

At step 1080, the interactive media guidance application determineswhether each item is relevant to the user which, in this embodiment,involves determining whether the item is greater than (or equal to) arelevancy threshold (which will be explained more fully below). Itshould be noted that the determination of step 1080 may be performed oneach hit after it is found, or when the entire search is complete. Thisstep will be described more below. At step 1090, the interactive mediaguidance application identifies the item as relevant (this may beaccomplished by, for example, setting a flag associated with the item inthe data structure representing the result set).

The process continues in FIG. 11, where at step 1110 the interactivemedia guidance application determines whether a minimum number ofrelevant items were found. If not, the application decreases therelevancy threshold (step 1120) and returns to step 1080 of FIG. 10 todetermine which items meet the new relevancy threshold.

Once the relevancy threshold is set and the minimum number of relevantitems found, the interactive media guidance application in thisembodiment selects modules for display based on the relevant items (step1130). For example, the interactive media guidance application maydetermine whether a “Top on Demand” or “Kids on Demand” (FIGS. 5 a and 5b, respectively) module is appropriate for display based on whether theitems are relevant to a child or adult. Or, the interactive mediaguidance application may determine whether a recommendations area (e.g.,area 420 of FIG. 4 c) or hot list area (e.g., area 430 of FIG. 4 d) areused.

After selecting the relevant modules, the process continues to one ofsteps 1140 or 1150 (some embodiments may employ both steps, but only onewill be performed in a given instance). At step 1140, the interactivemedia guidance application selects a graphical display definition basedon the number of relevant results (i.e., items meeting the relevancythreshold). Graphical display definitions define the look and feel of aguidance application display, or a module for a guidance applicationdisplay. In this step, the interactive media guidance applicationretrieves display definitions from storage 808 (FIG. 8) and populate itwith the relevant results.

In an alternative approach, the interactive media guidance applicationgenerates display definitions at run time (step 1150). For example, theinteractive media guidance application may be an object orientedapplication with objects representing each module, such as the modulesof FIGS. 5 a and 5 b. Each module object may have associated methods forgenerating the object for display. The methods of a module may generatedifferent looks of modules based on the number of relevant results. Atstep 1160, the interactive guidance application generates the display ofrelevant results according to the display definitions selected orgenerated at steps 1140 and 1150. In some embodiments, only the relevantresults are displayed. In others, the relevant results are visuallydistinguished from the non-relevant (or lesser relevant) results. Thismay be accomplished by coloring, highlighting, or using icons.

Whether display definitions are retrieved from storage 808 (FIG. 8) orgenerated at run time (such as in the object oriented approach describedabove), they are used to provide various desired effects in the displayof relevant search results. For example, the display area size of amodule having relevant results may be affected. The colors used todisplay relevant results may be affected. The positional arrangement ofmodules may be affected. Any other suitable display effect may also beused.

In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application mayallow the user to adjust the relevancy threshold. At step 1170, theinteractive media guidance application receives a user indication fromuser input interface 810 (FIG. 8) that instructs the application todecrease the relevancy threshold (the user may also increase thethreshold, which is not shown in the figure). In response, the processreturns to step 1120.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart an illustrative process 1200 for providingrelevancy information to step 1080 of FIG. 10. Either of steps 1210 and1220 are used to identify the user for purposes of defining therelevancy threshold (both steps may be employed at different times insome embodiments). At 1210, the interactive media guidance applicationreceives from user input interface 810 (FIG. 8) user login informationthat uniquely identifies the user. At step 1220, the interactive mediaguidance application determines the user based on monitored userbehavior (performed by the user with user input interface 810 (FIG. 8)).For example, the interactive media guidance application may haveassociated certain behaviors with a particular user profile. Or, in someembodiments, the interactive media guidance application may associateuser profiles with certain day parts as described in, for example,Ferrone U.S. Provisional Patent application Ser. No. 60/848,600, filedSep. 29, 2006, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

At step 1230, the interactive media guidance application retrieves fromstorage 806 (FIG. 8) user personalization data for the user or userprofile identified at step 1210 or 1220. This data represents the user'smedia interests, and is the basis for determining relevancy for thesearch results. Leaving FIG. 12 and turning to FIG. 13 temporarily,illustrative personalization data table 1300 is maintained by theinteractive media guidance application and stored in storage 806 (FIG.8). The interactive media guidance application posts or changes entriesto table 1300 in response to, for example, the user inputting expressuser media preferences using user input interface 810 (FIG. 8), or afterhaving monitored user behavior and determined the user or user'sinterest(s).

Personalization table 1300 includes five fields. Field 1310 identifies auser or, when a user is not expressly identified, a user profile. Field1320 identifies media attributes of interest, such as genre, actor,media type or any other media attribute. Field 1330 identifies valuesfor the attribute 1320 of a record. For example, an attribute “genre”may have an associated value of action or children as shown. Relevancevalue field 1340 is a numeric that specifies how important theattribute-value pair is to the user. In one of the exemplary records oftable 1300, for example, action is a very important attribute value touser 1 (as designated by a relevance value of 10). Field 1350 specifiesa day part for the user-attribute-value-relevance value quartet. In thefirst row, for example, the quartet applies to the time of 8:00 PM to10:00 PM.

Returning to FIG. 12, process 1200 continues at step 1240 where theinteractive media guidance application determines the current day part(such as by making a call to the system clock in processing circuitry806 (FIG. 8)). At step 1250, the interactive media guidance applicationdetermines the relevancy data for step 1080 of FIG. 10 by selecting onlythe records from table 1300 that are relevant to the identified user andday part. This relevancy data is fed to step 1080 of FIG. 10.

Returning to step 1080 of FIG. 10, the determination of how the searchresults may be determined to be sufficiently relevant for someembodiments can now be explained. For each search result, theinteractive media guidance application compares the attributes of theresult to the relevancy data from step 1250 (FIG. 12). Any suitablealgorithm may then be employed to determine whether the result issufficiently relevant. In some embodiments, the relevancy threshold is apercentage of words from the item that match the search criteria.

In other embodiments, a weighted distance algorithm is used where theoutput of the algorithm, d, is the square root of the sum of the squaresof v1V1 . . . vnVn; where v=the relevancy value of field 1340 ofpersonalization table 1300 (FIG. 13), and V is a distance vector betweenthe value for an attribute from field 1330 of personalization table 1300(FIG. 13) and the value of the attribute of the result. The distancesbetween attribute values may be maintained in a table by the interactivemedia guidance application in storage 808 (FIG. 8) (not shown). Theinteractive media guidance application determines if d for a result isgreater than or equal to the relevance threshold, which is a variablestored by the interactive media guidance application and is set to aninitial amount based on the amount of relevance the system provider ofthe interactive media guidance application would like to provide. Thisamount may be decreased (in this embodiment the threshold would actuallybe increased to allow for larger distances d) at step 1120 (FIG. 11) inincremental amounts (such as amounts equal to one distance vectoramount) when the number of relevant hits does not meet a predefinedminimum number.

FIG. 14 is a flow chart of another illustrative process 1400 inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention, in which theinteractive media guidance application is a program guide. At step 1410the interactive program guide receives keywords from the user for atitle search. The user may have entered the keywords using an on-screenkeyboard (such as that shown in FIG. 4 a for example) using a remotecontrol, or any other suitable interface. At step 1420, the programguide performs the title search by searching for program titles havingthe keywords in a database of guidance data from source 918 (FIG. 9). Atstep 1430, the program guide determines which results are relevant asdescribed above, and generates a recommendations or hot list (step1440). Recommendations may be generated based on user personalizationinformation as described above. Hot lists may be generated based on hotlist information from source 918 (FIG. 9) as described above. At step1450, the program guide displays a program guide display having therecommendations or hot list.

FIG. 15 is an illustrative data structure 1500 for a display definition.In this example, the data structure is a table and identifies threedisplay characteristics of a “Top On Demand” module (such as the “Top OnDemand” module of FIGS. 5 a and 7) for a given number of relevantresults (in this example six and three results, respectively). The tabledefines the size of the module, the element size of the individualrelevant results, and the colors to be used. This table may be retrievedby the interactive media guidance application as part of step 1140 ofFIG. 11 to display search results in different display configurationsbased on the number of relevant results. Table 1500 is onlyillustrative, as any other suitable data structure and set of displaycharacteristics may be used for varying display configurations based onthe number of relevant results.

In accordance with the foregoing, systems and methods for providingsearch displays of relevant media listings are provided. One skilled inthe art will appreciate that the invention can be practiced by otherthan the described embodiments, which are presented for purposes ofillustration and not by way of limitation, and the invention is limitedonly by the claims.

1. A method for limiting search results based on relevancy in aninteractive media guidance application, comprising: defining a number ofpanels in a video mosaic display; searching a database of media guidanceapplication data for media content items matching search criteria;determining whether the media content items matching the search criteriameet a relevancy threshold; determining whether the number of mediacontent items meeting the relevancy threshold meets a minimum number ofmatching media content items, wherein the minimum number is equal to thedefined number of panels; in response to determining that the number ofmedia content items meeting the relevancy threshold is less than theminimum number, incrementally decreasing the relevancy threshold untilthe number of media content items meeting the relevancy threshold meetsthe defined number of panels; and generating the video mosaic displayhaving, from among the matching media content items only those matchingitems determined to meet or exceed the relevancy threshold.
 2. Themethod defined in claim 1 wherein: the search criteria includes keywords; each item matching the search criteria includes at least one wordmatching the search criteria; and the relevancy threshold comprises adefined percentage of the number of words in the item that match the keywords.
 3. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising determiningthe relevancy threshold based on personalization data for a user of theinteractive media guidance application.
 4. The method defined in claim 3wherein the method further comprises generating the user personalizationdata from express user media preferences.
 5. The method defined in claim3 wherein the method further comprises generating the userpersonalization data by monitoring user interactions with theinteractive media guidance application.
 6. The method defined in claim 1further comprising selecting the relevancy threshold from a plurality ofrelevancy thresholds based on the time of day that the search isperformed, wherein each threshold of the plurality is associated with adifferent time of day.
 7. The method defined in claim 1 whereingenerating the display comprises sorting the items in the display byrelevance.
 8. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the relevancythreshold is defined in programming instructions of an interactive mediaguidance application.
 9. The method defined in claim 1 wherein therelevancy threshold is specified in data received by an interactivemedia guidance application.
 10. The method defined in claim 1 whereinthe items searched for are program titles, program listings, programdescriptions, or words in metadata describing scenes in a program. 11.The method defined in claim 1 wherein the search criteria are receivedfrom a user.
 12. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the searchcriteria are generated by the interactive media guidance applicationbased on personalization data for a user of the interactive mediaguidance application.
 13. The method defined in claim 1 whereingenerating the display comprises representing the items using text,graphics, or video.
 14. The method defined in claim 1 wherein theinteractive media guidance application is an interactive televisionprogram guide.
 15. An interactive media guidance system for limitingsearch results based on relevancy comprising processing circuitryconfigured to: define a number of panels in a video mosaic display;search a database of media guidance application data for media contentitems matching search criteria; determine whether the media contentitems matching the search criteria meet a relevancy threshold; determinewhether the number of media content items meeting the relevancythreshold meets a minimum number of matching media content items,wherein the minimum number is equal to the defined number of panels; inresponse to determining that the number of media content items meetingthe relevancy threshold is less than the minimum number, incrementallydecrease the relevancy threshold until the number of media content itemsmeeting the relevancy threshold meets the defined number of panels; andgenerate the video mosaic display comprising, from among the matchingmedia content items, only those matching items determined to meet orexceed the relevancy threshold.
 16. The system defined in claim 15wherein: the search criteria includes key words; each item matching thesearch criteria includes at least one word matching the search criteria;and the relevancy threshold comprises a defined percentage of the numberof words in the item that match the key words.
 17. The system defined inclaim 15 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured todetermine the relevancy threshold based on personalization data for auser of the interactive media guidance application.
 18. The systemdefined in claim 17 wherein the processing circuitry is furtherconfigured to generate the user personalization data from express usermedia preferences.
 19. The system defined in claim 17 wherein theprocessing circuitry is further configured to generate the userpersonalization data by monitoring user interactions with theinteractive media guidance application.
 20. The system defined in claim15 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to select therelevancy threshold from a plurality of relevancy thresholds based onthe time of day that the search is performed, wherein each threshold ofthe plurality is associated with a different time of day.
 21. The systemdefined in claim 15 wherein the processing circuitry is furtherconfigured to sort by relevance the matching items of the display. 22.The system defined in claim 15 wherein the relevancy threshold isdefined in programming instructions of an interactive media guidanceapplication implemented at least partially on the processing circuitry.23. The system defined in claim 15 wherein the relevancy threshold isspecified in data received by the processing circuitry.
 24. The systemdefined in claim 15 wherein the items searched for are program titles,program listings, program descriptions, or words in metadata describingscenes in a program.
 25. The system defined in claim 15 wherein thesearch criteria are received by the processing circuitry from a userinput interface device.
 26. The system defined in claim 15 wherein thesearch criteria are generated by the processing circuitry based onpersonalization data for a user of the interactive media guidanceapplication.
 27. The system defined in claim 15 wherein the processingcircuitry is further configured to represent the displayed items usingtext, graphics, or video.
 28. The system defined in claim 15 furthercomprising an interactive television program guide implemented at leastpartially on the processing circuitry, wherein the program guidecontains programming logic for configuring the processing circuitry. 29.The method defined in claim 1, wherein the relevancy threshold isdetermined by the user.
 30. The system defined in claim 15 wherein therelevancy threshold is determined by the user.
 31. The method defined inclaim 1, wherein determining whether the number of items meeting therelevancy threshold meets a minimum number and incrementally decreasingthe relevancy threshold until the number of items meeting the relevancythreshold meets the minimum number occur within a single search of thedatabase of media guidance application data.
 32. The system defined inclaim 15 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured todetermine whether the number of items meeting the relevancy thresholdmeets a minimum number and incrementally decrease the relevancythreshold until the number of items meeting the relevancy thresholdmeets the minimum number within a single search of the database of mediaguidance application data.
 33. The method of claim 1 further comprises:computing a distance value using a distance algorithm for items matchingthe search criteria in the database.
 34. The system of claim 15 whereinthe processing circuitry is further configured to: compute a distancevalue using a distance algorithm for items matching the search criteriain the database.